The Birth-Mark of Nathaniel Hawthorne - Essay Example

Discussion of "The Birth-Mark" of Nathaniel Hawthorne A famous short story of talented American novelist of XIX century Nathaniel Hawthorne "The Birth-Mark" still impresses modern readers with its depth and actuality. It is a tragic tale about scientific devotion and beliefs, about fallacies and mistakes, about dangerous and unethical consequences of human involvement into the matters of Mother Nature, like trying to change elements of face and body, or whatever was giving by God from the very birth. This story vividly shows, how risky can it be to mass with simple rules of nature. Of course, it is impossible to argue that people may use recent medical technologies and achievements of humanity and accept some operations or therapies, which will change or improve natural look or constitution. But my thesis is: it is quite dangerous to interfere into God's creative work, trying to change something in it. And, to my mind, it must be done only in cases of extreme urgency, and very carefully. It is not difficult to find in our social surrounding a number of contemporary characters similar to Aylmer, Georgiana or Aminadab. Some people are eager to reach "perfection" by any means, no matter whether it is for scientific interest or for satisfaction of some own obsession. Other people criticize such an approach and always obey the rules of nature in everything possible. And a remarkable fact is that recently it is not obligatory to be a scientist or a research worker in order to experiment with God's regulations and to try giving Him a dare. The majority of relevant experiences, to my mind, can be discovered in numerous attempts of many modern women (and sometimes men) to correct their appearance or constitutional type, using some complicated therapies, or medical treatments, or diets, or rather dangerous plastic surgeries. Living example of frightful consequences of such surgical interventions is Michael Jackson, who had a great deal of plastic operations and now looks extremely unnatural. There is another illustrative story from my own experience, which I could hear from my relatives some years ago. There was a man in their neighborhood named Douglas. He used to be fatty: it was far not some extreme obesity, but within the time he started noticeably putting on weight. He had a wife and a child, who did not seem to be unpleased with such situation. On the contrary, his wife Jenna used to say that she loved Dough in any condition, no mater how many kilograms he had. But Douglas himself seemed to be confused and unhappy, because he probably wanted to have a good body and to feel fit. That is why one day he made up his mind to use some medical help for his problem. He visited a doctor in one of the city's hospitals, who did not find any dangerous abnormalities in Dough's organism and recommended some usual easy things, like following a balanced diet, have frequent walks on fresh air and do physical exercises as much as possible. Encouraged by this doctor, first of all Douglas launched severe temperance in eating. Jenna started cooking some light fatless meals for him, which he used to refuse before. Then people could see Dough having some strolls along the beach or walking in the park with his son. Some months later he began enjoying doing some short jogging sessions in the morning, and then he even started swimming in the ocean. In two years the results were really notable, Dough looked very fresh and considerably slimmer. But there was still something, which did not allow this man to feel completely happy. One day, visiting doctor's office again, he confessed that he had been terribly afraid to break his regime completely one day. He confessed that as soon as he used to lose control over himself and start eating hamburgers again, it became harder and harder to limit his meals as the diet required. Finally, he came up with the idea of placing metallic clips to the entrance of his stomach, which would not allow him to eat much and balance hunger. Dough saw the salvation in this, because he could be back to his usual favorite meals and still keep himself more or less fit. Doctors tried to argue him out of such opinion, claiming that this operation would be rather risky; besides, it could not be done in their city. But Douglas was exceptionally adamant in his decision, and even tears and pleadings of Jenna could not change his mind. For couple of times he went to New York to look for some clinics, where such operations could be done. Finally, he found the place and started getting ready for surgery. He has left the city in determination to be back as a new "improved" person, but the tragic end of this story came, when Douglas could not wake up after the operation because of a fatal mistake of anesthesiologists. Douglas became obsessed with his "imperfection" and he himself proved to be a victim, so he can be compared with both characters of Aylmer and Georgiana. He could not resist temptation of eating pleasant meals, but at the same time did not want to suffer from fattiness and shortness of breath again, thus he took the risk and lost this game. It is very sad that refusal of making some efforts on himself brought his family to such a catastrophe. Another story, which can be not less demonstrative, appeared recently in local newspapers of my city. A young man was not pleased with his height, considering himself to be very small. Since his childhood he was the smallest boy among his peers, and he had to stand on various difficulties, related with this. His school friends were making fun of him and calling him with different offensive names. After finishing school, he could not find a girlfriend for quite a long time, but bearing his loneliness seemed to be very hard for him. He blamed only his natural "imperfection" in all his miseries and was only thinking about the ways, how to grow taller. Once he learnt that there were hospitals offering newly launched special operations on improving height of people. Surgeons had to cut bones of patient's both legs and fix them back with metallic bars, leaving some millimeters of gap between broken pieces. Within the time the bones were supposed to regenerate and therefore increase height of the patient. This was a great opportunity, that's why the man accepted this offer of doctors with great enthusiasm and started getting prepared for miraculous changes in his life. First two operations were successful, and in one year he managed to increase his height for almost one and half inches, supporting the treatment with some physical therapies and exercises for muscle extension. But unfortunately final third operation proved to be failed. It resulted with damage of a big vein of his leg and caused hard complications. No single expensive medicines or injections could prevent development of gangrene, and in the end this man lost his leg and was left crippled. Tragic purport of this story is close to the one of "The Birth-Mark", because both the birth-mark and small height did not bring any considerable physical discomfort or health disorders to their carriers. It was something psychological, mental, emotional, but not vitally necessary, to undertake some steps on correcting such "imperfections". All people must be faithful, resistive and patient, they must learn to live with all physical and mental characteristics, which were given them by God. Our religion, Christianity, teaches us to be thankful to Him for everything he created for us and for everything he sends us: success or failure, happiness or loneliness, health or diseases, pain or pleasure. In this discussion I personally am on the side of Aminadab and those, who criticize interference of human beings into the rules of nature. I believe that we have to change something in ourselves, our habits and viewpoints, our own egos and personalities, and have to make some good efforts on that, rather than correcting our appearances or frames and then expect some instant wonderful changes in our life. Bibliography: Hawthorne, Nathan. "The Birth Mark." The Literature Network. 17 Sept. 2005 . "Science and the Pursuit of Perfection." Discussion of Nathaniel Hawthorne's Short Story, "The Birth-Mark" by the Presidential Bioethics Committee The President's Council on Bioethics. 17 Jan. 2002 17 Sept. 2005 . Read More